Inside the Illinois Executive MBA

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Finish Strong

Full Metal Jacket was one of my favorite movies in college. There was nothing like drinking an ice-cold beverage while watching this guy mold young men into soldiers. Although the U of I EMBA program isn't quite the Marine Corps, we've had our own boot camp so to speak – and 573 days of studying finance, marketing and operations have transformed us into hardcore business grunts. We’ve just finished our last class weekend and soon we'll be taking our ambition, intellect and Pepto-Bismol to China. Time to go hard – time to finish strong!

Getting to this point wasn’t always easy, and we’ve gone through our share of challenges. All of us wanted to contribute in a meaningful way during class without embarrassing ourselves. Our team assignments required that we constantly rely on our comrades for support – especially when times were hard. Candidly, some of us needed some added motivation to get the job done, but that extra “push” was always given with good intentions.

Now that China is in our sights, there will be many that will lead the charge – including Joe K., Jen, Tony, Beth, Wong, and Rick. There’s no other band of brothers (and sisters) that I’d rather take this journey with – executing all that we’ve learned in a foreign land. Before you know it, we’ll return home to our loving families and friends followed immediately by graduation – then on to the rest of our careers.

Going through this program has been an arduous and rewarding ride – and one that I will treasure for years to come.